I was up all night ’til 5:00 am before I finally went to bed for a couple of hours, the night of the Referendum.  Before I went to bed, it was already clear that Brexit had won, and when I returned to view in the morning, it was clear that they had won by a margin of over 1,250,000 votes.

That means that the Independence Party, against all odds, against manifest slurs, has commanded the allegiance of some 17,410,742 people.  I am referring here to a de facto party, although it was composed of some Conservative, some Labour, and without doubt a huge number of U.K. Independence Party supporters.  The irony is that UKIP has but one member in Parliament.

While David Cameron has now resigned, until such time as a new leader of the Conservatives is elected, the fact remains that in the House of Commons, the Independents are in a minority.  So it was clearly right that Cameron had to resign, since he had fought tooth and nail for the Remain campaign.  While the Tories fight over who is to be their next leader, with Boris Johnson a clear favorite, the Tories are even now distancing themselves from the real hero of the campaign, the man who has fought tirelessly for some 30 years – namely, Nigel Farage.

Farage, who is an MEP – that is, a member of the European Parliament, along with his other British MEPs, has now done himself out of a lucrative job.  It may surprise American readers to know that an MEP can earn considerably more than the prime minister of Great Britain.  It is in fact the corruption and utter greed of the European so-called Parliament that was and is so offensive to English susceptibilities.

Farage can rightly claim to be the victor of the campaign to leave the EU.  Without Farage, can anyone seriously imagine that the result of the Referendum would have been what it turned out to be?  No, the victory was his, though the laurels may go to Boris.

On the other hand, as John Redwood, M.P. has pointed out to me, without the EuroSkeptics within the Conservative ranks inside Parliament, the Referendum might never have taken place.  So we now have an extraordinary situation where the majority of the Commons is on the defeated Remain side, while the victorious EuroSkeptics now have to bring in legislation and get it through an unwilling House.  It seems to me that a general election must follow.

One may imagine that both sides of the Commons will hesitate greatly to have such an outcome, since the fear must be that Middle England, comprising the 17 million supporters of Independence, would largely support UKIP.  That means that the Conservative supporters of Independence and the Labour supporters of Independence would have to make an accommodation with UKIP not to fight each other for seats.

This could herald a new age in Parliament, since it is clear from the TV debates that Labour, Conservative, and UKIP M.P.s could closely work together.  If an arrangement is made, then I can forecast 40 to 50 UKIP M.P.s in the House, hopefully including some of the experienced MEPs of various colors, like Daniel Hannan and William Dartmouth, let alone Nigel Farage himself.

This fear of a general election could work in favor of the EuroSkeptics, as the Europhiles must fear a beating in the polls.  It is as well, therefore, that the Conservative M.P.s acknowledge their debt to Nigel Farage.  It must be remembered that even now the general public is unclear as to who is on which side.

If, however, the Conservatives, in spite of their individual views, close ranks behind a new prime minister, then a new era is in sight.